


What would you sing?

by maftuna1304_gx



Category: Blake Shelton (Musician), The Voice (US) RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:20:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maftuna1304_gx/pseuds/maftuna1304_gx
Summary: Gwen keeps making self-depricating comments and Blake helps comfort her insecurities? Y'all idk, just please trust me on this.
Relationships: Blake Shelton/Gwen Stefani
Comments: 15
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gwensgalriri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwensgalriri/gifts).



> this took me honestly too long to write, but school is annoying so I barely have time to write, I don't get how Cami writes like every day while working a day job. This is for all of baby melonie's blake's-hands-around-gwen's-legs-obsessed adoptive parents and grandparents. and especially Riya for the prompt.

“If you guys had to audition for the voice, what would you sing?” Blake looks over at Gwen, smiling to himself as he remembers all the conversations they’ve had about this and all the songs he had told her she should sing for her theoretical audition. That smile is short-lived though, as he sees Gwen’s anxiety bubble up. It’s something no one else noticed. Her arms have just been in front of her this whole time, but he’s known her long enough to recognize the second she tenses up and her one arm squeezes the other hand, averting her gaze from the cameras.

Blake remembers then that every conversation they had had about this had always included Gwen’s insecurity about her voice, and he feels sorry for not knowing how he might cover for her, knowing that come her turn she’ll panic and do anything but say a song she’d sing. Blake sends up a quick prayer for John to take his time, hoping he’ll be able to think of a way to cover for Gwen. He rolls his eyes internally and regrets not having punched her ex all those times he had a clear shot, for all that the scumbag had done to his incredible girlfriend’s self-confidence. 

Cursing Kelly under his breath for picking Gwen to go next, his own anxiety starts to come through. He abandons the solid position he held throughout the taping and shifts back and forth, not knowing what to do with himself to be helpful in the moment. Blake prepares himself for the absolute bullshit that’s about to come out of his girlfriend’s mouth. Normally he wouldn’t call words coming out of her beautiful lips anything less than music to his ears, but he can’t stop his heart from breaking every time she starts with the self-deprecating word vomit. 

Once she’s done her little stuttering spiel with her rambling and tense shoulders and nonsensical answer, Blaken taps her twice on the back as he walks back from his exaggeration of Gwen’s appreciation for him. Gwen understands of course why Blake did that, but comes up short on why or what about he’d need to talk later. Still, she squeezes his palm to let him know that she’ll make sure to drop in and talk to him about whatever it is, as soon as they’re off-camera.

The attention now on him, Blake goes through everything he’d told Gwen he could perform on the show. He chooses the silliest answer he can think of, hoping to make Gwen giggle and stop spiralling, which he’s sure she’s still doing after the answer, or lack of, that she just gave.

***

Finally seeing Gwen re-emerge from her make-up trailer, Blake starts with “did you mean that? That I’m the best country singer ever?”.

Her face lights up and he can see the moment she snaps out of that habit-fueled spiral. “Blakey I said you’re _the_ best singer I’ve ever heard, but yeah! And the best ever country singer too!!” she giggles, and looks into his eyes with so much love he almost feels bad for where he’s about to steer this conversation. “Well, what about you, sweetheart? You’ve heard yourself sing a bunch right?”

Gwen’s presence shrinks before he can finish.

Her face nuzzles his chest, and Blake sees every one of her anxiety tics coming through. She hugs him tight, and when she says “my gift is writing songs, that’s what I do,” her voice sounds even smaller than she feels in his arms. 

Blake stays quiet, hoping she’ll take the silence as a nudge to continue and maybe open up some more, give Blake something he can pick apart to make her see herself through his eyes.

“Blakey I literally don’t even make, like, the top 100 or 200 or whatever the list for best singer on this planet is, I’m just trying my best here. And I just feel blessed to even get to be with you and sing on your tracks, because you top like, every single list.”

Brushing his hands up and down her arms and hugging her tighter, Blake tries to think of what to say, yet everything he comes up with keeps circling back to “fuck gavin”. That idiot never deserved her, and this legendary global superstar who could not be more incredible in his eyes, somehow doesn’t even think she mattered in music. 

“Blake I have to get ready for the voice, I’m supposed to tape my lives rehearsal today and I gotta switch up my outfit. You can drop by if you want, I think you’ll like the song this week,” Gwen winks and skips away as if she wasn’t sad and putting herself down less than a minute ago. By some force of magic no one around notices, even if Blake can see right through her “work smile”, as she calls it. 

***

Rose finishes her rendering of his song and Blake is stunned into silence on the side stage. He heard their first rehearsal a few days ago, and he’s heard Gwen coaching her on facetime last night. Since they’re filming this rehearsal, he stays off stage, for now, making a mental note to approach them both once the cameras cut to congratulate them on the progress. 

“Wow oh my god that was so crazy, I’m so thankful you stuck with me as a coach. I feel like I can’t even mentor you, you’re just that good,” another time that Gwen belittles herself, even though she’s trying to compliment someone else. Sitting on the side stage and knowing that the cameras are still rolling, it takes about all the self-restraint Blake has to not walk up onto the stage and kiss some sense into his girlfriend. 

That is, until she starts her next tangent. “I mean you have like miss winner of Idol, then literally the guy with Legend in his name, and Blakey, who’s like the greatest singer to ever exist in the whole entire history of country music, ya know? I mean you were awesome since the moment you got here, I’ve just been cheering you on, I don’t even have anything that would help you, you’re already amazing and I’m... just a girl, you get what I’m saying? I’m just honoured to get to watch you bless this stage every week.” Gwen’s trying to be nice, be funny, and Rose appreciates it, Blake understands all that.

All that doesn’t stop him from asking them to cut the cameras as he walks onto the stage. 

Gwen looks his way, a questioning smile gracing her gorgeous features, softening as Blake walks up to her and hugs her from behind. Leaning down to her temple, he places a few kisses along her hairline, proudly singing “forehead kissesss”, earning a few laughs from the camera crew and a flustered giggle from Gwen. 

Blake continues his trail down to her ear and covering the mic on her shirt, whispers “Darling I better not hear that ‘I’m not a good singer’ bullcrap anymore. You’re on a show called the goddamn voice for fuck’s sake.” With a final kiss to the top of her head, he walks back off the stage with a quick “sorry I felt like she was gonna start crying there, you know her. Anyway, I’ll let y’all keep rehearsing, ignore me” as the dumbest excuse possible. 

On the final step off the stage, he turns back and adds, “except Gwen. I worked _way_ too hard to not be invisible to global superstar queen of rock Gwen Stefani, I ain’t going back on that.”

Gwen tilts her head back and laughs her most sincere laugh today, as she brushes off his comment with “oh my God, you’re so dumb”. Turning back to Rose, Gwen brushes a hair back behind her ear and smiles back at Blake, as her way to let him know she heard him.

Blake listens to Rose rehearse the verse another few times. He’s again disappointed when he hears Gwen say “wow that note at the end, I could never do that. You guys on this show are so crazy, your voice, Rose, still baffles me”. And yet again, Rose looks thankful, no one else notices that she made another dig at herself, and the show goes on. 

In the background, Blake quickly glares at Gwen for that comment, then takes the rest of Rose’s rehearsal to think of ways to stop himself from driving to her ex’s house and punching his guts for breaking such a beautiful being.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the angst last chapter, I promise I'll make up for it with some happiness in this one! of course, after a little bit more insecure Gwen because as we've learned from Cami, what's all that fluff for if we didn't have a bunch of angst before it right?

Blake poses patiently for Gwen to take the selfie she insisted on taking. "For later, when you're at some concert and I have to fall asleep without you, at least I'll get to see you!" she says. "Also your hair looks super cute right now," she adds, ruffling the curls he had just tried to stick back into place, that Michelle had scolded him for ruining thrice that day on set. 

Before Gwen can even finish plugging her phone in, Blake's pulling her arm back to join him on the bed. 

"God I've been waiting all day to do this" he breathes into her collarbone, sucking at her neck as she giggles from his breath tickling her.

"And you think I wore that outfit because I wasn't horny all day? Blake think again, I'm the one in control today."

Gwen tries to push Blake onto his back, failing miserably and instead falling right back onto her pillow. Using her moment of weakness to help him, Blake uses one arm to move Gwen under him, keeping his weight on the other.

Still giggling and trying to catch her breath, Gwen yelps in surprise when Blake picks her up, making Blake fall onto his other arm laughing in turn.

"Sorry Blake, I don't even know what that sound was that just came out of my mouth." 

Rolling his eyes away from her line of vision, he moves back to her and cuddles her instead, realizing she just won't let this thing go. "Gwen we've talked about this, you know my favourite thing in this world is to hear you make every kind of noise because of me."

Gwen turns around and faces away from him, quietly answering "I know babe, you know I know that. But I guess just, my voice did something so weird there and I got worried that it sounded weird. Like it went really high. You just caught me off guard, it's — " and as much as Blake adores her ramble fits, this one he cuts off by kissing the top of her head and turning her back around to face him.

"Gwen, sweetheart, why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?" she replies, looking even more clueless and innocent than Zuma at breakfast last weekend, with his cereal in a mess all over the counter.

"Why are you constantly worried about what you sound like? Darling if I can get a sound out of you that's a win for me. And you're Gwen fucking Stefani, just about every rocker in the world would sell their soul and studded leather jacket to have your voice."

She seemed to be listening and considering what he was saying, until Blake noticed her look away and come back to him with a different look in her eyes, like all that insecurity had been thrown away. "Blakey come on, not right now. You look really hot, have been the whole day, and I'm trying so hard not to kiss you senseless right now."

Blake recalls Gwen's list of "coping mechanisms", the one Jen had made him listen to her repeat that day that he spent with the kids at her house, while Gwen was in the studio recording some song called "Sooner". At the top of that list was avoidance, switching the topic. Then came pretending it doesn't affect her as much as it really does. 

Gwen had made him promise not to get tangled in any of Jen's crazy responsibilities and promises, yet he couldn't say no when his girl's best friend and sister-in-law made him promise to never let Gwen get away with those. 

"Blakey come on, where were we? I think I was trying to take control and you weren't letting me push you down onto the mattress under me right?"

“Gwen, please, don’t start with the avoidance bullcrap, I need to talk to you about this because you have got to realize just how incredible you are. Your voice has the coolest tone I’ve heard in the world, and that’s not even something you can create, you’re born with that gift.”

“Blake yeah yeah I know, but I just mean, or at least like, what I was talking about today when we were filming, like, I’m not great at the actual singing part. I can’t do the cool high notes, or just switch keys whenever, and even like, when I’m writing songs -”

“I swear to God if you finish that sentence I’ll have to go find your damn ex and beat the living fuck outta him”. That was supposed to be the one thing Gwen’s confident in. Her writing. Gwen Stefani is one of the greatest songwriters in music today, and if anyone, especially her, has anything to say about her writing —

“No just, yeah I know God gave me the lyric-writing gift, and I love that and I’m so so grateful that I can express myself and have that outlet and all,”

“Gwen there better not be a but after that”

Gwen shakes her head, trying now for the third time to finish this sentence, “but I never even write cool melodies, for me it’s just about getting my feelings out in words on paper, I’m not like you, going into super cool vocal things on like every single song I write.”

As much as Blake appreciates the compliment, he’s so tempted to punch something. Or someone, yeah that one would probably be more satisfying.

Thinking about how Gwen talked about how scared she was in her marriage that Gavin would get physically violent, he’s both more and less tempted to use that excuse of a man as a punching bag. Or not less actually, just more regretful if he were to do it, which somewhere, in a part deep in his mind that he’s yet to acknowledge, he knows he’ll never do. 

If he decides to take out his anger by being physically violent, Gwen would establish in her mind that that’s a possibility. That she should be scared of him getting physical. And the last thing he’d want in the entire world is for Gwen to be scared of him when he’s angry. 

“Gwen you know that you only think all of that because your ex is a disgusting human who was just always jealous of how much more successful your band is than his, right?”

“Yeah but —”

“He’s gone Gwen. And the rest of the whole goddamn world, including me, we all know that Gwen Renee Stefani, lead singer of No Doubt and the woman who blazed the path for women in all kinds of music, and created that path to mix genres, we all know she’s incredible. That woman naturally has a stage presence that every other artist under the sun works their whole life to have. And everyone knows that Gwen Stefani has the greatest voice in music, and I know that. We all hear it in everything you sing, your voice is out of this world.”

He finally sees Gwen loosen up and stop being so tense, her jaw unclenching as she stopped opening her mouth to protest every other word he’d say. Now that she’d sort of accepted that, or at least for now stopped trying to belittle herself on behalf of that ex of hers, Blake decides it’s okay to finally go back and acknowledge that playful Gwen that he’d seen earlier. He wasn’t lying when he told her he’d been looking forward to taking that outfit off her all day. 

“Gwen the world, and me, we all know you’re a great singer. Except for me it’s a little better because I know that the shy little voice you do when you talk offstage is a fucking lie, because that voice that they all love, they don’t even know the half of it.”

Gwen turns her head up to look into his eyes and finally a small, shy smile graces her lips, barely reaching her eyes. Blake takes the opportunity, now that the mood is lighter, to plant a quick kiss on those lips before continuing, 

“And somehow, I get to be the lucky bastard that gets to hear the other half, the one reserved just for me, when I come home every night.” Moving further down his pillow, Blake plants his next set of kisses in a trail down her neck.

“Like the gorgeous sound that comes out of your mouth when I do this,” he kisses her collarbone and sucks on her pulse point, “or this,” he uses his teeth to nibble right where he had been before, eliciting a moan from the back of her throat — one he felt the vibrations from more than heard, as he continued. 

“These are the parts of your voice I love the most. Oh, I also really love this one...” Drawing out the ‘really’, Blake undoes the buttons on her silky grey pyjama shirt and continues his trail of kisses further down. 

When he stopped at her hip to nibble on the skin just above the waistband of her shorts, Gwen began to squirm under his touch. Holding her down with his hands on her thighs, he moves to just below her shorts. With a few kisses to the inside of her legs and a bite on the inside of her left thigh, Blake hears that scream he had been waiting for. 

Finally having been satisfied, for now at least, he moves back up to his pillow to finish what he was saying, basking in the way she groaned and said almost every obscenity in existence for leaving her so frustrated.

“See these, these are the parts of your voice that i love the most.” He hesitates in choosing his next words, but realizes that in that silence Gwen lost her playful smile and clenched her fists again, averting her gaze and finding a dot on her pillow to stare down. 

When he draws his finger up just under her chin to make her look back at him, curious expression plastered on his face, she meekly murmurs “Sorry. Just um, talking about him brought back some baggage that you don’t need in your life. It’s unfair of me to be thinking about that right now, it’s okay. Sorry, you’re right, I love you, that’s all that matters right? Sorry, where were we? I think your tongue was about to do something really important? That I’ve literally been dreaming about all day? I think by now you can smell the proof of that too.”

As much as he wants to get back to where he had been between her legs earlier, and as much as he did get to smell exactly what she was talking about, he realizes that he can’t stand letting her win with this avoidance game. And that takes almost more self-restraint than he has.

“Sweetheart you just said sorry three times in thirty seconds.”

Out of habit, Gwen replies “sorry,” blushing and resorting to nuzzling his chest while he finishes what he had to say.

“And hey, what actually matters is that you see how much I love you too, and that I can hopefully love you well enough for you to accept that love. And by the way, if I’m gonna be puttin’ that work in, I’m gonna need your mind to be immersed in what I’m doing and not thinking about some scumbag, thank you very much. And we’re not getting there until we sort this out. So, tell me what exactly is going on in that beautiful head of yours.”

“I don’t know, I just, sometimes I think about you and him and whatever, and sometimes, like, my brain goes back to that mindset that I was stuck in,”

“That he stuck you in.”

“Yeah, whatever. But like I just, I think of the last few years with him, and I just feel so gross because of what he did and like I really just ignored everything, you know what I mean? And it feels so disgusting to think that he was completely just fucking her and then coming home and touching ...me,” she shrunk even lower, forcing Blake to completely stop moving just to hear her.

“Well, sometimes. When he felt like it, if he was in the mood. Anyway, yeah, it just,” he hugs her tighter and pulls the blanket right up to her neck as she shudders, though he guesses that it must also be from the thought she’s spiraling through. The tears he can now feel through his shirt also tell him that even if not for warmth, Gwen needs a warm blanket and a hug right now. 

“Sometimes I feel so gross about my own body because of that, and then you Blakey, you go and be all nice and touch me in ways that he would _never_ do because it’s supposed to be all about him you know? You know this, I just never was into sex that much before you.”

As Gwen whimpers cries into his shirt and barely moves any other muscle, Blake tries in the quietest voice, “hey, how about we take the day off tomorrow, and go to sleep right now? I promise I’ll get back to what my mouth was doing tomorrow, or maybe in the morning if you wake up with the sun instead of sleepin’ right through till noon.”

Through her now slower cries Gwen looks up into his eyes and laughs, “heyyyy you know I need my sleep. And I don't get how you farm people just get up when the sun does, that’s so weird I think.”

Laughing at ‘you farm people’, he tries again with what he’s failed at convincing her to do for four years now, “You should try it! Wake up with me tomorrow and I promise I’ll finish what I started.” Noticing she’d finally stopped crying, Blake takes it as a little victory to again have pulled her out of that dark place, “but tonight how about you come here and lay with me, and just sleep okay? And Gwen I promise you, there’s nothing wrong with what you did or let him do to you. You didn’t know about that damn other chick. You wanted to salvage your family, all you wanted was to be happy, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Gwen finally shows him a genuine smile, “I love you, you know that? I can’t even believe sometimes that you’re real.” Pausing, she adds, “and yeah you’re right I’ll try to remember all that, and I’ll try to stop thinking about him and what he did, that’s not fair to you Blakey.”

Just when he’d thought she was done with the anxiety for today, he reluctantly understands why Jen made him learn that list of Gwen’s bad coping mechanisms: “Don’t pull that ‘I’ll try’ crap. I know that you only do that when you don’t want to accept what I’m sayin’ and you want the praise to be over so you can go wallow in your self-pity. Gwen, darling I promise I will hug you and kiss you and worship you and compliment you until you realize how incredible you are. And you know what, did you hear what ‘Pollo was sayin’ yesterday?”

Gwen cringes at that one, thinking back to Apollo’s recent obsession with just about every smart piece of knowledge he can get his little eyes on. “No Blakey, what did he say? And that was _so_ unfair, you’re playing dirty. You know I can’t be sad when I’m thinking about my baby.”

“Hey, you’re catching on! Almost. Actually that was the whole point baby girl, I’ve been trying to make you happy this whole time, apparently your kids are the ones to finally make you crack.”

“Blakey you knew that already, but sorry I interrupted you, what was it ‘Pollo told you?”

  
“His teacher told them that each cell in your body’s replaced every seven years. And I’ve been the only one to touch _this_ gorgeous body for almost five, so most of you has never even been touched by him, I’m the only guy in the world that gets that luxury.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! sorry this ook longer than I thought it would, fuck school. yay for fridays. even ho i have a busy weekend so technically I should've gotten stuff done, but it's fine I can cram sunday evening:P

**Author's Note:**

> I have the other half all planned out, I just have to actually write it down nicely, and i have no patience so I'm posting this and I'll post the end once I actually write it.
> 
> This is what I spend my time doing instead of doing my damn homework, hopefully at least someone finds it a good use of my time lmao.


End file.
